At last night’s Medford Township Board of Education meeting, the board applauded the release of last year’s NJASK test scores. Medford scored higher than similar school districts across most grade levels.
However, they remained concerned this year’s PARCC test may take away classroom time and negatively impact students’ scores in the future.
Director of Curriculum Thomas Olsen presented the district’s scores on the 2014 NJASK assessments and also examined the amount of time this year’s new PARCC test will take compared with NJASK.
Some board members were concerned when Olsen said PARCC would take much longer to complete than NJASK did.
“It’ll be approximately twice as much testing time,” Olsen said. “One of the primary concerns is the time it will take away from instruction.”
The lost instruction time goes further than taking the actual test. PARCC will be scheduled in a different manner than NJASK. Each student in grades three through eight will take a performance-based assessment in March and an end-of-year assessment in May. The tests must be taken within a four-week period in each month. All classes will not take the test at the same time, meaning the schools will need to modify their regular schedule around testing.
Board member Michelle Hammel felt the amount of time eaten up with testing might negatively impact students’ ability to learn. Olsen said it’s hard to tell whether there will be a negative impact.
“No teachers wants to lose instruction time,” Olsen said. “It’s too early to see what this data will give us.”
Olsen said teachers have had to go through a number of training sessions to prepare for the test. Unlike NJASK, Olsen said PARCC requires the teachers, not the test administrators, to perform a lot of the preparation work.
“The teachers will be responsible for a great deal of preparation,” he said.
Some board members are concerned about parents keeping their kids from taking the test. While no parents have spoken out during meetings in protest of the assessment, there was a concern some parents might instruct their children not to take the test.
Olsen stated the district’s students are required to take the test.
“We cannot not take these tests because we are a function of the state,” Olsen said.
Despite the concerns, the school district is hoping to use PARCC as a tool to better its curriculum programming down the road. Olsen explained the NJASK test is only accurate in showing how Medford students are performing compared to their peers across the state. PARCC will allow the district to compare scores with other states that are taking the same test.
“It will be more useful data,” Olsen said.
Olsen expects the computer test will also allow for faster results. The district is not able to review results from NJASK until the October board meeting because of the amount of time it takes to grade them. In comparison, Olsen said PARCC results might be available as early as June.
“We really don’t get the ASK data until September,” Olsen said.
Board President Michael Etter said the district is trying to overcome the challenges of PARCC and use the data to evaluate students better.
Olsen also said PARCC is only a small part of student evaluation. He said report cards, classroom performance, grades and other factors will still carry weight in evaluating the district’s educational programs.
